The paper is an experience report on applying a socio-technical approach to business process improvement. The approach is based on an augmented socio-technical matrix (STS-matrix) that differentiates 4 quadrants of socio-technical system: (1) culture/mind set, (2) type of structure, (3) methods/techniques, and (4) type of technology. It was applied in a study related to knowledge creation and sharing in a sales process in a multinational company. The augmented STS-matrix has been used for both holistic analysis of the situation and developing suggestions for organizational intervention.

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Using a Socio-Technical Systems Approach for a
Sales Process Improvement
Experience Report
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Ilia Bider and Victoria Klyukina
7/6/2019
6th International Workshop on
Adaptive Case Management and
other non-workflow approaches to
BPM (AdaptiveCM 2018)
Stockholm, October 16
Text of the paper http://bit.ly/2NzcWit
http://bit.ly/2NzcWit

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A case study of a consultative sales process
• In a product-oriented multinational company in high-tech sector
• Applying socio-technical perspective to analyze the current sitiation
suggest improvements
• Related to knowledge management in the frame of the process: more
exactly to knowledge creation and sharing in the frame of the whole
company in relation (mostly) to sale

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Theoretical Background – A Systems
View on Processes
Systems coupling diagram
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From Lawson, H.W., 2010. A journey through the systems landscape.
Systems Series, Volumes 1 and 5, College Publications.
Respondent System – The
system created to respond to the
situation where the parallel
bars indicate that this system
interacts with the situation and
transforms the situation
to a new situation.
System Assets – The assets of a
bigger system that are to be
utilized in responding to
situations.

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Business Process as a System
• BPI - On the instance level, we consider a Business Process Instance as
a temporal system created for handling a specific situation, for example a
request for quotation. After the situation has been dealt with, the
temporal system is disbanded.
• BPWS - On the type level, we consider that for each type there exists a
permanent socio-technical system that is responsible for starting and
monitoring process instances of the given type, and supplying them with
resources/assets needed for attaining the instances operational goals,
such as people, tools (e.g. IT systems), procedures (e.g. manuals,
process maps). We call this system a Business Process Work System
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Business Process Improvement
1. By design (explicit)
Designed activities aimed and introducing changes in BPSW, e.g.
introducing a new support system, or staff training.
2. Evolutionary
Self-adaptation of BPWS when it uses experience and knowledge
obtained in completed BPIs to run new BPIs.
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Theoretical Background –
an augmented STS-matrix
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Tasks
TechnologyStructure
People
Social
Technical
• Increased level of abstraction in the quadrants
• “join optimization” is substituted with “alignment”
The idea borrowed from: Kowalski, S.: IT Insecurity: A Multi-disciplinary Inquiry. Doctoral thesis ISBN: 91-7153-
207-2, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (1994)
Tasks
TechnologyStructure
People
Social
Technical
Techniques/methods
Type of structure Type of technology
Organizational
Culture/Team mindset
1
2
3 45
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Theoretical Background –
Knowledge transformation
SECI model of knowledge transformation of Nonaka:
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Nonaka, I., 1994. A dynamic theory of
organizational knowledge creation.
Organization science, 5(1), pp.14-37..
Two types of knowledge:
– Explicit
– Tacit

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Business Case – Anritsu
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A consultative sales process
in an international concern
with over 400 products to sell
https://www.anritsu.com/en-
GB

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Data Sources Used in the Study
1. Unstructured interviews (discussions) with a senior manager in the
Swedish office.
2. Studying internal documentation related to the sales process and
systems that support the process.
3. A semi-structured interview with a sales executive at the Swedish office
(1.5 hour interview).
4. A small-scale survey among the sales executives in the offices of
Sweden, Denmark and UK – totally 10 executives of which 8 participated
in the survey (participation was voluntary). See here
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The consultative sales process
1. Personal target setting in financial terms.
2. Lead generation.
3. Preparation of the presentation and customer visiting.
4. Qualifying the opportunity or closing the deal.
5. Competition analysis.
1 – 2 belong to BPWS
3 – 5 belong to BPI
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The sales process
1. Personal target setting in financial terms.
2. Lead generation.
3. Preparation of the presentation and customer visiting.
4. Qualifying the opportunity or closing the deal.
5. Competition analysis.
1 – 2 belong to BPWS
3 – 5 belong to BPI
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The Support Systems
1. SIS - Sales Information System - Information is arranged around
products, or instruments in the terminology of this company. Top-Down
one way communication from Marketing to Sales
2. CRM is a bottom-up information system that is fed with updates on sales
situations by sales executives after visiting a customer. It is designed to
capture mainly formal data such as a prospect name, products of
interest, estimated closing date, etc. There is one field for comments
(unstructured)
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Classification of Sales Situations
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GSS1: Both the product and customer needs
are new for the sales executive.
GSS2: The product is familiar to the executive,
but the customer wants to use it for a purpose
different from the one the product has been
designed for.
GSS3: The product is new but the sales
executive has the knowledge of customer
needs, e.g. from the cases were the company
has not been able to deliver a solution
GSS4: Routine sales – both the product and
customer needs are known to the sales
executive

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Knowledge creation and usage
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A small-scale survey among the sales
executives in the offices of Sweden, Denmark
and UK – totally 10 executives of which 8
participated in the survey (participation was
voluntary). See here
GSS1: New knowledge is being created
GSS2: Some new knowledge is being created
GSS3: Some new knowledge is being created
GSS4: Knowledge is used

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Analysis of current situation
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Tasks/methods/techniques
TechnologyStructure
People
Social
Technical
Work around product
oriented information
structuring
Control via
unconditional
financial targets
Separate one way
communication
systems (SIS & CRM)
Individual work with
partial countrywide
cooperation

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Suggestions for improvement
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Tasks/methods/techniques
TechnologyStructure
People
Social
Technical
Work around sales
situations information
structuring
Rewarding search
for new opportunities
& information sharing
Integrated multiway
communication
system
Companywide
cooperation

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Lessons learned & Future Research
Lesson learned:
1. Augment STS Matrix can be useful for practical purposes of analysis of
situations and generating suggestions when analyzing business
processes
2. GSS matrix can be useful for understanding knowledge creation and
sharing in a sales process
3. The questionnaire connected GSS matrix can be useful for analysis of
the current situation in a sales process
Possible Future Research:
• Investigating other companies’ sales processes
• Finding a case where suggestions could be introduced.
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Q & A
Thank you for your patience
Questions and comments
Please
Contact: ilia@dsv.su.se
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